Sunday Gravy: Explanation for Quinnipiac; advice for UConn

The national anthem is played at the Consol Energy Center in Pittsburgh before last year’s national championship game between Yale and Quinnipiac. Register columnist Chip Malafronte clears up some of the confusion that surfaced when news broke that Quinnipiac is bidding to bring the Frozen Four to Orlando.
Gene Puskar — The Associated Press

Finally got around to watching “Breaking Bad” last week and I’m hooked. Can’t wait to see what direction the show takes next season.

• The general response to this week’s news that Quinnipiac is bidding to bring the Frozen Four to Orlando was confusion. Why wouldn’t the school look to a venue a bit closer to home?

Most hockey venues of the appropriate size in the Northeast, like the TD Bank Garden in Boston and Prudential Center in Newark, are tied to other schools, says Quinnipiac athletic director Jack McDonald. He added Madison Square Garden isn’t cost prohibitive.

The XL Center in Hartford, with a listed hockey capacity of 15,635, is just a bit too small, McDonald said. The NCAA requires guaranteed net revenues of $2.5 million. Total ticket sales are crucial to that end.

Two selling points of Orlando are Disney and the sparkling Amway Center. The Metro Atlantic Athletic Conference, which would co-host the event with Quinnipiac, has a working relationship with both, enhancing chances of winning the event.

It’s not unheard of for schools to host NCAA championship events a thousand miles from campus, especially in hockey, where the majority of members are in the Northeast or Great Lakes region. Alaska-Anchorage played host to a Frozen Four in Anaheim. The University of Wisconsin has also thrown its hat into the upcoming bidding cycle, hoping to play host to the event in Tampa.

Quinnipiac may have a surefire revenue generator. But unless one of the local teams qualifies, it will have little impact for New Haven-area fans. As long as the selection committee picks Orlando, that is.

• A new season opens this weekend, and the center of the college hockey universe will soon celebrate the spoils of last year’s success.

Yale’s plan is to raise banners for the Frozen Four (which includes its 1952 appearance) and its national championship prior to the home opener with St. Lawrence on Nov. 1. Quinnipiac is raising a Frozen Four banner during its Oct. 19 home opener with preseason No. 1 UMass Lowell. The Bobcats will also unveil a gargantuan, NHL-caliber, hi-def video scoreboard that same night.

• UConn hasn’t had an impact quarterback since Shelton’s Dan Orlovsky graduated nine years ago. Tim Boyle, the true freshman out of Xavier, has that kind of potential. In fact, with his size and big arm, he reminds us a little of Dan O. Boyle will take some lumps over the final eight games, especially with that porous offensive line. But the experience will benefit him in the long run and the Huskies might finally have a guy to build an offense around.

• Former Register writer and football guru Bob Barton sends us a couple of interesting points for the post-Paul Pasqualoni era at UConn.

“(a) As long as UConn is firing people, how about firing that half-a-husky-dog face on the helmets? It hasn’t scared anyone. Yale ditched that ugly bulldog logo it wore on its sleeves and has started winning.

“(b) The clock is ticking on Casey Cochran’s eligibility. With Boyle now No. 1, when and where does Cochran transfer? Does he go Ivy League or Potted Ivy (Williams, Wesleyan, Amherst) or still try to make it in I-A?”

• Greg Schiano has been a disaster, and it’s not just fans of the Tampa Bay Buccaneers who want him out on his rear end. There’s no better way to draw the ire of a nation that to crush the value of a Top 3 fantasy football pick.

• A San Francisco 49ers defensive back is legally changing his last name to “Hitner” to make a statement about his aggressive tackling. It’ll fit on the back of his jersey a bit cleaner than his first choice, Missile-ini. Because he hits like a missile. See what I did there? Ah, they all can’t be winners. Let’s just move on.

• Tyler Olander has been reinstated to the UConn men’s basketball team. Coach Kevin Ollie cited the senior’s maturity as a big reason for his return. Of course, it is Olander’s troubling lack of maturity that got him into this mess in the first place.

• Milford’s Mark Arcobello earned a shot at major minutes with the Edmonton Oilers thanks to a couple of injuries. The former Fairfield Prep and Yale star had his first NHL assist on Tuesday. Whether he figures into the club’s long-term season plans depends on how he performs the next few games.

• One piece of advice for UConn interim football coach T.J. Weist: when speaking to the media, avoid, at all costs, describing any facet of your team as “a work in progress.”

• We don’t go to YouTube much, mainly because it’s far too easy for one 5-minute clip to morph into a six-hour trance of ’80s heavy metal videos and old Larry Bird highlights. But it’s worth your time to check out one guy’s brilliant impression of Mike Francesa as a Revolutionary War-era radio talk show host. The analysis and intonation is perfect; the material comedy gold.

Here’s 1776-era Francesa, in a white powdered wig and Redcoat officer’s jacket, opining on America’s chances against the British Army.

“If the rebels have any chance of winning this war, they better trust Benedict Arnold. Because when Benedict Arnold is Benedict Arnold, he’s Cornwallis. And when Cornwallis is Cornwallis, he’s Alexander the Great. OK? So, if you’re going to trust anybody in this war on the rebels’ side ... Benedict Arnold is your guy. Back after this.”

Chip Malafronte, the Register sports columnist, can be reached at cmalafronte@nhregister.com. Follow Chip on Twitter @ChipMalafronte.